Goldie
Goldie at a rave in 2003.
Born	Clifford Joseph Price (1965-09-19) 19 September 1965 (age 46)[1] Walsall, (then Staffordshire, now West Midlands), England
Residence	Bovingdon, Hertfordshire
Nationality	English
Other names	Goldie, Rufige Kru
Ethnicity	Mixed Race
Occupation	Musician, actor, disc jockey
Years active	1991–present
Home town	Walsall, West Midlands, England
Television	Snatch (2000) EastEnders (2001–02) Celebrity Big Brother (2002) Maestro (2008) Strictly Come Dancing (2010)
Spouse	Sonjia Ashby (m. 2002–2005) «start: (2002-11-21)–end+1: (2006)»"Marriage: Sonjia Ashby to Goldie" Location: (linkback:https://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Goldie) (divorced) Mika Price (m. 2010) «start: (2010)»"Marriage: Mika Price to Goldie" Location: (linkback:https://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Goldie)
Children	4[2]
Website
metalheadz.co.uk

Clifford Joseph Price, better known as Goldie (born 19 September 1965) is an English electronic music artist, disc jockey, visual artist and actor. He is well known for his innovations in the jungle and drum and bass music genres, having previously gained exposure for his work as a graffiti artist. His acting credits include the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough, Guy Ritchie's Snatch and the British soap opera EastEnders. He has appeared in a number of celebrity reality television shows including Celebrity Big Brother UK, Strictly Come Dancing and Come Dine With Me.

Biography [link]

Early life [link]

He is of Jamaican and Scottish heritage.^[3][4] He was put up for adoption and raised in child-care homes and by several foster parents.^[5] Price was a member of the breakdance crew Westside, based in the Whitmore Reans and Heath Town areas of Wolverhampton, in the 1980s. He later joined a breakdance crew called the Bboys, and made his name as a graffiti artist in the West Midlands.

His artwork around Birmingham and Wolverhampton was featured heavily in Afrika Bambaataa's documentary Bombing. He took part in the largest ever British graffiti art battle alongside Bristol artist Robert "3D" Del Naja, who later formed Massive Attack. He is mentioned for his graffiti in the book Spraycan Art by Henry Chalfant and James Prigoff, which contained several samples of his art.

He moved to the US due to graffiti projects and also started selling grills (gold teeth) in New York and Miami, he continued this business after his return to the UK in 1988.^[5] Contrary to popular belief^{[citation needed]} this is not where his nickname was derived, it stems from an earlier nickname 'Goldielocks' that was given to him during his B-boy days and subsequently shortened when he no longer had dreadlocks.

Drum and bass [link]

By 1991, Price had become fascinated by the British breakbeat music scene when his girlfriend, DJ Kemistry, introduced him to the pioneering jungle and drum and bass producers Dennis 'Dego' McFarlane and Mark 'Marc Mac' Clair, known as 4hero.^[5] He went on to do some design and A&R work for 4hero's Reinforced record label.

In 1992 Price made his first album appearance by contribution of a short vocal bit to the legendary track Rufige by Icelandic group Ajax Project.^[6] The track has since then been repeatedly misattributed to Price himself, perhaps due to subsequent use of the 'Rufige' moniker for his own ambitions.

His releases Killa Muffin b/w Krisp Biscuit and the Dark Rider EP were released under the alias, Rufige Cru.^[7] Recently, he has used the alias Rufige Kru to release collaborations with other producers such as Heist. His track Terminator, released under the name Metalheadz in 1992,^[8] was a hit in the jungle scene and is noted for pioneering the use of timestretching.^[5] In 1993 he released Angel, another 12" on the Synthetic Hardcore Phonography label. 1994 saw him setting up his own record label, Metalheadz.^[7]

His first studio album, Timeless, followed in 1995. Timeless entered the UK Albums Chart at number seven.^[9] The album fused the breakbeats and basslines common in jungle with orchestral textures and soul vocals by Diane Charlemagne. The album's title track was a 21-minute symphonic piece. "Inner City Life", a track taken from the album reached number 39 in the UK Singles Chart.^[9] Timeless helped popularize drum and bass as a form of musical expression.^[10]

1996 saw the release of the Toasted Both Sides Please remix of the Bush song Swallowed, which topped charts in the USA and Canada.^[11][12][13]

Price released his second album in 1998, Saturnz Return. The album's opening track "Mother", is an hour-long orchestral drum and bass piece. The album featured appearances by David Bowie, Noel Gallagher and KRS-One.

In 2002, Price said that he had been working for three years on a film called Sine Tempus,^[14] described as a coming-of-age story of a young paintbrush artist and in 2006 announced the soundtrack as his new album.^[15] The album was released via the Metalheadz website in 2008. The film has not been released.

Price is known for his work as the leader of the Rufige Kru. The group has no fixed members and has included drum and bass producers such as Technical Itch, Heist, Cujo, Agzilla Da Ice, Danny J, Doc Scott and Rob Playford.

Acting career [link]

Price has appeared in Guy Ritchie's Snatch and several films, most notably the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough. He also played gangster Angel Hudson, in the British soap opera EastEnders (2001–2002). Price starred in Everybody Loves Sunshine (1999) (aka B.U.S.T.E.D - United States title) with David Bowie.

Television appearances [link]

In the late 1980s Price appeared on Central Weekend, a Friday evening topical debate show on Central TV, promoting graffiti as an artform. He had a small documentary made about his art on Central TV's Here and Now programme featuring Pogus Caesar's photographs of New York. He appeared on various young peoples TV shows as part of breakdance crew, the Bboys from Wolverhampton. In 1995 he appeared on Passengers as well as a Channel 4 documentary about himself in 1998.

His next TV appearance was hosting Crime Business on the digital TV channels Bravo and ftn, as well as presenting The World's Deadliest Gangs on Bravo in 2001.

Price appeared on the second series of Celebrity Big Brother UK in 2002. He was the first celebrity to be "evicted". He was scheduled to appear in The Games, a UK reality TV show on Channel 4 in 2006 but during training for the water-ski jump event, he fractured his femur, and was unable to take part in the show. He was replaced by Adam Rickitt. In 2009 he was reported to be suing the producers of the show for damages as a result of the injury.^[16]

During August and September 2008, the BBC broadcast Maestro, a reality television show in which eight celebrities, including Price, learned to conduct a concert orchestra. Price placed second, behind Sue Perkins.

On 31 July 2009, the first of a two-part television programme Classic Goldie was broadcast showing how, in the wake of his success in the Maestro programme, he learns to write a score for a large orchestra and choir. The resulting composition entitled Sine Tempore (Timeless) and commissioned by the BBC, was performed at two children's Promenade concerts in the Royal Albert Hall on 1 and 2 August 2009, a concert which featured music connected with Charles Darwin and the creation and evolution of the world.^[17]

He appeared on Celebrity Mastermind on 27 December 2009 and came fourth behind Paul O'Grady, Gail Emms and Loyd Grossman. On 11 September 2010, he was announced as part of the line-up in Strictly Come Dancing and on 10 October, he became the first celebrity to leave the show.

On 22 December 2010 he appeared in a Celebrity Come Dine with Me Christmas Special.^[18]

On 26 March 2011, he appeared in a three part reality television series, Goldie's Band – By Royal Appointment, in which he led a group of music experts as they conducted a nationwide search for young talented musicians, and then selected and intensively coach twelve of them, who collaborated to create some musical pieces for a performance at Buckingham Palace. ^[19]

Art [link]

In 2007 Goldie returned to the art world with an art exhibition 'Love Over Gold', which ran at the Leonard Street Gallery.^[20] In 2008 he teamed up with Pete Tong to provide much of the artwork for Tong's new Wonderland club night at Eden nightclub in San Antonio, Ibiza.^[21]

Goldie had an exhibition in Berlin between 13 and 26 June 2008.^[22] In April 2009, Goldie's 'Kids Are All Riot' exhibition took place in Shoreditch, London. His screenprint 'Apocalypse Angel' was released to coincide with this recent restrospective of the artist's prolific works and originals.

Personal life [link]

In the 1990s, Price had a relationship with drum and bass artist Kemistry, who died in a car accident in 1999.^[5] He was romantically involved with singer Björk for several years until their break up in September 1996.^[7] Price married model Sonjia Ashby, but divorced in 2005.^[15] As of 2003, he had five children.^[23] Goldie appeared on 20 June 2009, with his girlfriend of two years, Mika on ITV1's All Star Mr and Mrs with Phillip Schofield and Fern Britton. As of 2010, he is married to Mika Wassenaar, a Canadian.^[24]

As of 2006, he lives in a country house in Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, which he bought in 1998.^[15][23] In 2002 Hodder & Stoughton published Price's autobiography Nine Lives, which he wrote with Paul Gorman.

In July 2010, Goldie received an honorary doctorate in Social Sciences from Brunel University, Uxbridge.^[25] On 3 September 2010, Goldie received an honorary degree of Doctor of Design from the University of Wolverhampton.

On 7 September 2010, Goldie's 23 year old son Jamie Price was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum tariff of 21 years, for murder. Price was convicted after stabbing a man to death on 24 August 2008. The victim was a member of a rival gang.^[26]

[edit] Strictly Come Dancing performances

Selected album discography [link]

Selected singles discography [link]

• "Inner City Life" (as Goldie presents Metalheadz) - FFRR 1994 - UK #39
• "Angel" - FFRR 1995 - UK #41
• "Jah" / "Deadly Deep Subs" (Remixes) - Razors Edge 1996
• "State Of Mind" - FFRR 1996
• "Digital" (as Goldie featuring KRS One) - FFRR 1997 - UK #13
• "The Shadow" (As Rob & Goldie) - Moving Shadow 1997
• "Everything" - Power Fly 1997
• "Kemistry V.I.P." / "Your Sound" (Remixes) - Razors Edge 1997
• "Moving Shadow 100" - Rhythm Republic 1997
• "Tempertemper" (as Goldie featuring KRS One) - FFRR 1998 - UK #13
• "Believe" - FFRR 1998 - UK #36
• "Angel III" / "Sinister" (The remixes) - Razors Edge 2004
• "Say You Love Me" - Metalheadz 2005
• "Monkey Boy / Special Request" - Metalheadz 2007
• "Malice In Wonderland" (promo) - Metalheadz 2007
• "Vanilla" - Metalheadz 2007^[9]
• "VIP Drumz / Ghost's Of My Life (Riders Ghost)" - Metalheadz 2007
• "Envious / Justified" - Metalheadz 2009
• "Freedom" - Metalheadz 2012

Selected mix discography [link]

• INCredible Sound of Drum'n'Bass – (1999)
• Goldie.co.uk – (2001)
• MDZ.04 – (2004)
• Drum and Bass Arena: The Classics – (2006)
• Watch the Ride – (2008)
• FabricLive.58 – (2011)

References [link]

External links [link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Goldie

• Official website
• Goldie discography at Discogs
• Goldie at the Internet Movie Database
• Goldie - biting through – Interview by Jan Goodey
• Create your own luck – Inspiring Interview with world renowned DJ/Producer/Musician/Actor and Artist Goldie
• The War is Over – Mixmag Interview by Tony Marcus
• Saturnz Return – Mixmag Interview by Matthew Collin about the release of his album Saturnz Return.
• Goldie - Headz Will Roll Interview by Tim Colman
• Goldie - 2008 art exhibition